The Silent Watcher

Category Archives: spiritual awakening

A local hostess, well known to serve large delicious meals of self pity, complete with several courses of hurt, rejection, self concern and loneliness, suddenly and without warning refused to serve a well known Elemental who had come in for his daily meal.

The elemental was “a regular” and had arrived as usual during the quiet hours when there was less activity in the restaurant. Sitting down in its usual place, a quiet table in the area of the heart, it asked for “the usual”, a dinner it had ordered regularly without a problem.

The hostess, having a sudden surge of self awareness, recognized the elemental for what it was. “You are a vampire”, she screamed as she quickly stopped the flow of energy which had already started to leach into the Elemental’s mouth.

Apparently, an informant* had “ratted” on the Elemental. He said that the elemental had disguised itself and attached to the unsuspecting hostess during several unfortunate incidences of loss. It was using her energy not only to maintain its vitality but to send “negative energy” out into the community in “a fishing scheme” with the hopes of finding others who might be opening a similar restaurant.

The Elemental screamed that it was unfair and that she had served him on a daily basis before. In fact he said that he had become so close to her it was like a common law relationship. Then he tried to convince her that she should serve up a large portion of guilt and remorse when she realized that her friends had been terrorized too.

The hostess quickly realized that the elemental had simply chosen another item from the menu. She refused to serve him, in any way and showed him the door vowing to reveal his identity to the public along with his “viral like scam” which was poisoning the community.

*C.W. Leadbeater – Astral Plain

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I have just read a book by A.E. Powell called “The Astral Body”. It’s actually a series of quotes from Blavatsky, Leadbeater, Besant and others. I rarely read Besant and Leadbeater, preferring to stick to Blavatsky for the purest teachings, however this seems to be a good compilation on the subject. I did credit this information in the blog, by using the term “the informant” , to Leadbeater, however I could have used Blavatsky or Besant, as both have also written extensively on this subject.

One of the chapters in the book, talks about thought forms. An impersonal thought perhaps about mathematics or science, etc. would be a purely mental thought form. On the other hand if the thought has in it something of a personal nature, desire, etc. it draws around it an Kama manasic elemental essence in addition to the mental, If it is of a spiritual divine nature, tinged with love, unselfishness and aspiration towards spiritual things, it may even have something of the Buddhic plane in it.

When a thought is produced by us, it is energetically carried by something called an “Elemental”. The Elemental is like an energy bundle; the combination of thought and energy is called a thought form. Since our brains are thinking all the time, we are constantly emitting thought forms of all kinds. When we walk down the street or are with others, we are in a sea of thought forms from others. Thought forms are attracted to other thoughts of the same vibration, we exchange them with others all the time.

When we respond to the mood of the moment, be it harmonizing, cheerful, energetic, or discordant, angry, emotional, we are actually “reading” the astral atmospheric conditions which are produced by the though forms of others.

The Hostess in this metaphor represents any one of us who has suffered loss and unfortunate events in life, on which a great deal of emotionally charged thoughts have been centered. At a certain time of the day, regularly, these thoughts well up, triggered perhaps by a moment alone, and they fill her heart with negativity. The Hostess had been taking this time to think over the past and relive the situation, over and over again until she was exhausted. She thought that by doing this she was coming to some resolution of the past, but in reality that had not happened, and probably wasn’t going to happen, instead she was giving energy to the thought forms and keeping them alive.

One day she realized this, she decided it was time the end this cycle that was getting her nowhere. Not only was she recharging her negative thoughts, she was sending them out into the atmosphere of everyone around her, unconsciously affecting everyone who came in contact with her.

With her realization of what she was doing to others and herself, she resolves not the give these thoughts energy. For a moment she felt remorse when she realized how she had affected others, but quickly she saw that trap too. She stopped all negative thinking.

The moment of Self Awareness occurred when she actually saw her own cycle of negative thinking.

Anyone who has gone through periods of depression, has been overcome with angry thoughts, sadness, self pity or loneliness knows how very difficult it is to stop it. The Elemental thought forms have a great deal of energy, and not only that, they have an affinity to and gain strength from the thought forms of people around them who have similar issues.

Taking responsibility for how we think involves conscious positive effort. Replacing negativity with thoughts of love, harmony and peace can produce amazing results, not only for our own mental health and emotional well being, but for all the people we include in our circle of life.

The above blog is actually a metaphor, which points out that with Self Awareness we can stop a pattern of negativity. Self Awareness in this case would be achieved by reaching a state of consciousness where one could actually see one’s own thought patterns without falling into the entanglement of them.

I have always been taught that we are here in a physical life and that is where we do all our learning. We create karma and must proceed through lifetimes of experiences, “the journey of the pilgrim” soul in physicality, working to dispel the myth of separateness and individuality, gradually realizing our oneness with the whole of creation. Thus proceeding and evolving in awareness as human beings, spirit incarnate in flesh, we awaken here on earth as true spiritual beings. If we choose the path of Bodhisattva we choose to stay within the earthly planes, helping and influencing others on their journey.

I was told, by some theosophists that were influential in my early years, that all learning and progress takes place while incarnated in the physical (and astral planes during trance and sleep), not in the afterlife. This seems to contradict some of the teachings from other authors such as Leadbeater and Besant which I have been reading lately.

I understood that after death, when we enter the first Kamalokic plane, we are only shells of the physical being, the real man or the higher triad, is somewhere else, while the kama-rupic shell gradually expends the energy that has held its etheric body and desire mind together. The density of this shell depends on the intensity of the desire principle in man toward material things, power, lust, cravings, etc. Some people stay in this state longer, being as we say “drawn to the earth” trying to fulfill its desires. Sometimes these gross, vile and murderous shells can affect and influence those living beings who would draw this energy to themselves because of similar vibrations or other causes that would leave themselves vulnerable.

In some way, I guess this makes sense when we consider the type of life lived on earth. Those of us who are ambitious, material, and full of earthly desires, have in a way lost touch with our “higher nature”, and in fact have great difficulty in allowing our conscience and higher principles rule our lives. It would make sense that the same condition would carry over in to the afterlife.

Where is our higher self during a life on earth lived in such a way? It is fully present but unable to influence the human being while in this state of enrapture with material life.

Gradually the effects of the earthly life in the first after death state, lessens its hold on the departed soul. As it becomes free of the physical life lived it gradually awakens, by degrees, to its life in the astral plane (which includes Kamaloka and Devachanic realms).

Leadbeater and Besant insist that learning can take place in the after death Kamaloka and Devachanic states; Karma can be both caused and acted out, the dead can influence the living and and the reverse. In fact they insist that life in the astral plane, (where two thirds of the beings acting there are those who are in fact the dead, not in trance or sleeping), is much freer and more satisfying than life on earth. There is no body to inhibit, time is irrelevant, thought can be instantaneous and the mind can create anything it wants.

Did Blavatsky teach the same thing? If this is true that learning and experience can take place in the after death states, why incarnate into the physical at all? Leadbeater and Besant seem to think we should dispel the illusion of the physical plane as quickly as possible and live with an awareness in the more subtle states of the astral.

Astral matter obeys the same general laws of physical matter and gravitates towards the center of the earth. It extends almost out to the orbit of the moon.

I have always understand that the astral is a reflection of the physical experience. That reflection appears to us to change by degrees; in fact it is our awareness that is becoming free to experience it differently. We become less focused on the solid and earthly experience and begin to reflect the subtler elements of being.

It makes sense to me that the degree of awakening attained here on earth would be relative to the degree of awareness in the early stages of the afterlife.

A highly evolved being, one who has opened the gates of awareness and is functioning with his higher faculties while yet in the flesh, would, when he died, experience the after death states differently than the average human being. Being unattached to the physical, the sleeping state of spiritual awareness experienced in the early Kama Lokic states would have no need to occur, as full realization of spiritual life has already been attained. Free of all illusion of the physical states, the fully conscious being would experience the after death states in full awareness. It seems to me that this would be the argument for the urgent necessity for us to develop our awareness while in the flesh before death occurs.

As I mentioned before, it is suggested by Leadbeater and Besant that learning and experiences as well as Karma occur during the after death states. The being is actively involved , making choices, doing good for those on earth, and living in a very real plane of existence.

My questions are:

Are the after death states a reflection of the previous life lead on earth, and a recapitulation of that life lived?

Are the after death states a continuous journey of new experience, carrying on from the death of the physical life just experienced, occurring in a plane of existence without the physical expression?

The great wheel revolves and plunges us into physical experience over and over again.

Life is a continuum influenced by the law of periodicity which works in spiral circles, round and round, gradually drawing the pilgrim to experience all of the “seasons” of the soul.

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The answer is both, in a way. For sure the first two after death states in Kama Loka are a recapitulation of the life just lived, but in a state of heightened awareness, with nothing hidden, a transparent state so to speak. In the after death states, all the thoughts we have as well as the thoughts of the other people in our lives are transparent, nothing is hidden. We recapitulate our experiences and actions until we have redeemed, learned or come to a state of emotional balance with our experiences. We realize what or how we would have done differently if given the chance again, and as these experiences come up in the Kama Lokic state, we see them coming, something like when we are in a state of déjà vous, and with our spiritual will we choose the better way of doing things.

Causes set in motion while in the physical, will play out on the physical plane in the next incarnation, however we hope that we will have learned from previous misdeeds and when the opportunity arises to confront a similar situation, we will choose the right path.
The after death states are a continuous journey, however a recapitulation of the life just lived is the first activity that one experiences on the other side of the vale. For a more in depth explanation of the after death states, I would highly recommend going to newtheosophynetwork.com After Death States part one – be sure to read all the parts.

I’ve slept for twelve hours, off and on, and woke up with a mind clear and calm. No thoughts are pressing forward, in fact I wonder if I am capable of any complex or important thoughts at all.

I have forgotten all I know, or thought I knew of how things are. I am starting over with only one thing that I ask. How can I be helpful to this world as it is now? I open my heart and function within the framework of the Seven Virtues: tranquility, control, listening, concentration, renunciation, endurance and faith. That’s all, just that.

Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but “lies asleep.”

The present is only a mathematical line which divides that part of eternal duration which we call the future, from that part which we call the past.

Nothing on earth has real duration, for nothing remains without change — or the same — for the billionth part of a second; and the sensation we have of the actuality of the division of “time” known as the present, comes from the blurring of that momentary glimpse, or succession of glimpses, of things that our senses give us, as those things pass from the region of ideals which we call the future, to the region of memories that we name the past. In the same way we experience a sensation of duration in the case of the instantaneous electric spark, by reason of the blurred and continuing impression on the retina.

The real person or thing does not consist solely of what is seen at any particular moment, but is composed of the sum of all its various and changing conditions from its appearance in the material form to its disappearance from the earth.

It is these “sum-totals” that exist from eternity in the “future,” and pass by degrees through matter, to exist for eternity in the “past.” No one could say that a bar of metal dropped into the sea came into existence as it left the air, and ceased to exist as it entered the water, and that the bar itself consisted only of that cross-section thereof which at any given moment coincided with the mathematical plane that separates, and, at the same time, joins, the atmosphere and the ocean.

Even so of persons and things, which, dropping out of the to-be into the has-been, out of the future into the past — present momentarily to our senses a cross-section, as it were, of their total selves, as they pass through time and space (as matter) on their way from one eternity to another: and these two constitute that “duration” in which alone anything has true existence, were our senses but able to cognize it there.

An artist yearns to capture the Now, and hold it as a moment in time; but the Now can never be captured, it’s the one thing that is forever free. An artist can only capture what is happening within the Now. SJO

This is a link to a most inspiring video by Adyashanti and E. Tolle about “Taking the Step” into a new consciousness.

Doctrines such as the planetary chain, or the seven races, at once give a clue to the seven-fold nature of man, for each principle is correlated to a plane, a planet, and a race; and the human principles are, on every plane, correlated to seven-fold occult forces – those of the higher planes being of tremendous power. xxxvii -SD-HPB

The human principles correlated to the planetary chain, seven races and seven-fold occult forces, if understood, would give each of us an understanding of the wholeness of our existence, every nuance being inter woven and each influencing the other. If only we had the insight and awareness to be conscious on all levels of our being. How alive and energized we would be. How would it work?

One way to help us to understand this concept would be the study of Western Sidereal Astrology. Awareness of astrology keeps us in the present moment, vitally alive and aware of how each planet is moving at this moment in the universe and influencing how we are in the world today; our moods, our accomplishments, areas in our life that flow well and other areas of our life that are at issue. Astrology can mirror to us our connection with the universe; the whole manifestation. The connection of each of our human principles with the planets is expressed by our physical and energetic body, our psychic state, our mind, our awareness or our essential self and our connectedness to the whole.

There is lots of writing in theosophical literature to explain these things, but I think today, in this era of the blog and the fast information to us on the internet, most of us don’t want to leaf through page after page of books.

I often feel that I don’t want to read about it, I want to do it; or I want someone to show me and to demonstrate this theosophical philosophy as a working model. I want to be with someone who is aware in the moment, who is aware that his/her every thought is influencing the mood of the moment for others and him/herself and who is taking responsibility for that. I want to be with someone who is comfortable in their own body, knowing that we are the creators of our body, of our mental faculties, our psychic state and our energy. I want to be with those people who have the well being of humanity as their primary focus. (See the article Applied Theosophy on the New Theosophy Network site.)

These awakened people are our real teachers in the twenty-first century. These teachers walk amongst men and we can identify them by their energy and awareness states. The student has to find their teacher by intuitional awareness and the state of their own being. This cannot be found by googling an information search or reading the Secret Doctrine cover to cover.

I’m not saying to throw out these methods. I think that we need to study, read and gain knowledge. We need to open our mind to the infinite possibilities presented in sacred works. Blavatsky says that reading the Secret Doctrine will actually change the way we think and how the mind functions.

I continue to read, and also observe how I am “being” in the world. I am coming to the realization that most of us don’t see how we are “being” in the world. It’s amazing how I don’t see my self absorption and lack of awareness of what is actually going on around me. I talk a good talk, but am aware that what really counts is doing “the walk”.

I think that the syndrome of alcoholism and codependence is a holistic thing; it isn’t about one person with an individual problem and others, being affected by unlucky chance.

If we take a “whole view” approach when observing the human being, (which for me is a theosophical approach), and if we accept the idea that life is a continuum, then we see the spirit of man moving from embodiment on earth, to afterlife states, to embodiment on earth over and over again.

Embracing that thought, the earthly experiences of each individual create groups of energy; groups of energy are called Skandas.

To give an example here of an experience creating skandas I could say that – I saw my father drunk, he frightened me, he walked past all of our family boundaries. The energy field created for me was fear, confusion and vulnerability associated with alcohol.

I met an older male neighbour who was alcoholic, he was friendly to me, gave me lots of hugs and move past that into inappropriate touching. The energy field created for me was vulnerability, confusion and lack of trust which I associated with alcohol.

The individual experiences build, and the skanda/reactive energy fields within grow and intensify. They become part of how we are in the world and how we react to experiences and how we see our path in the world. They actually form the conditioning of our awareness state and condition what we see and experience. These skandic energy fields manifest in what is commonly referred to as Karma. They direct our choices in our future path.

Skandas manifest in each human being, grouping together as the child is born, and form the physical strengths and weaknesses, body and nervous system, and degree of awareness the individual is functioning within. They also have an influence on which environment and group of other individuals the individual will be born into and have to function with, at least for the first few years of life.

I would make sense then that the “addictive syndrome”, would involve not only the active alcoholic or addict but all others associated with that person, who are facilitating the karmic agenda in which the scene is set. It would also make sense that those who are associated with the alcoholic/addict are, have been or will be influenced by skandas which have coalesced to create the reality in which they are functioning in this lifetime. We need also to realize that because we are exposed to this paradigm in this lifetime ourselves, even though we may not be the acting out alcoholic/addict, we most likely have been that in the past in order to possess the skandic energy pull which has put us here. We should also be reminded that addiction can manifest in many forms, not only the example of substance addiction which I am using here.

All this to say that I view alcoholism, addictive behaviour and codependance in a holistic way, if we are affected by it in this lifetime, in any way, we have been part of it in the past. We have developed the reactive skandas and karmic destinies in which we are functioning.

We all need to stop placing the blame only on the individuals who are acting out and start looking within ourselves. Realizing the role that we play as codependent accomplices in the deed, we can start to do the heavy lifting, the real gut wrenching work that needs to be done to heal ourselves and in turn show the way to heal others.